


Never Forget

by xXWormXx



Category: Christian Bible, Christian Bible (Old Testament), Sefer Shmuel | Book of Samuel
Genre: Battle, Bible, Bible drama, Blood, Broken Reality, Fighting, Friendship is Magic, Heaven, Jonathan being a good Christian boi 😔💕💕, M/M, Memories, Promises, Saul kind of being a good caring dad..., Symbolism, Visions, What is reality?, convenants, interpret this however you want, kind of gay though, kingdom - Freeform, nothing makes sense here, sword - Freeform, think whatever you think, this is like the 4th dimension, throne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:00:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26691820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXWormXx/pseuds/xXWormXx
Summary: On the edge of life and death, Jonathan, the son of Saul and prince of Israel, must make decisions of his future. Through the memories and thoughts stirring within him, he comes down to the single decision he makes for the good of his nation and a man he couldn't forget.
Relationships: David | Dāūd/Yehonatan | Jonathan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Never Forget

The world spun and all memory left when the fire of the arrows plunged into his flesh. He gasped and lurched forward, slamming himself on the ground as if to bow before his enemies' feet attacking him. At first, a numbness pressed the places struck by the arrows, but it scurried and swept the agony piercing his sides.

Jonathan's scream echoed into the mountain of Gilboa where the Philistines fought and prowled upon his people as the ravenous dogs they were. Clashes of iron and bronze rippled throughout the land with cries of the fallen following after the blows of various weapons. Swords swung through the air and arrows sped at every direction. Heaven's light hid behind the dark clouds looming to witness Israel's prince thrashing to arise and fight once more. But the fire of the arrows pinned him with such force he couldn't shake off.

_Adonai! Adonai! Deliver me!_

He gritted and swallowed to breathe. Jonathan grasped the side of his tunic where the arrows stuck in his flesh. His chest rose and fell without ceasing when his heaves deepened in an uncontrollable rapidness. His mind raced, and the ground seemed to shake. Trembling in his anguish, he squinted the tears streaming down his eyes. The agony dug deeper causing him to squirm in the dirt like a worm. Blood painted the ground and his hands when lifting them to reveal the thick scarlet oozing down his arm, leaving a trail gleaming the horror in his eyes. He knew the fate approaching him, but he refused to believe it. Israel needed him at the moment. Their blood had been shed enough from the sword of the Philistines grappling onto their victory wavering in the light of their nation. He wouldn't give up. He wouldn't do such a thing.

_Never!_

Eyes narrowed and the confidence surging, he hoisted himself up by the sword he possessed. The sharp jabs tempting him to stop, he ignored them. As prince of Israel, the duty for his nation in the hands of their enemies needed to be done. But with such confidence flickered and then smoldered when the third division of the Philistine archers came in view at the top of the hill, firing their arrows at him.

Overwhelming agony clasping him struck at every side of his body it could find. The arrows swarmed about him without reluctance. It sent him flinging back on the ground as before with the fire and the sharp bites intensifying. He let out another shriek as he sucked the air of the earth.

_Adonai! Deliver me, I pray thee!_

Jonathan's muscles tensed until flopped upon the terrain, soaked in the blood he spilled. His head throbbed, and the world clouded into a blur he could hardly make out.

"Jonathan, my son!" The familiar voice he struggled to compromise throughout his life, distant and faint, rang from a figure on the next hill in front of him. The figure's sneering and the bitterness he always spat had been rinsed from the fatherly tears drizzling the love, grief, and horror no father should comprehend under his son's devastating circumstance. The king, in a foreign countenance Jonathan had never seen, slouched with hands held out and legs sprawled. Saul continued his screeches of sorrow by his two other sons, dead at his feet. Jonathan gazed at his brothers with his sight doubling in a fog he couldn't see passed. They laid like them. He laid among them.

He choked on the blood curdling and mouthed the dirt rubbed against his cheek. Another fiery twinge shook his body while his hands crumpled beneath his chest. He heaved. His nails scraped the earth's hide. The helmet he wore, a dome made of bronze, slithered down his head in defeat. Beneath it revealed the golden circlet marking him as the royal prince and future king of his kingdom. It too tumbled from the black of his hair and onto the ground where his eyes met the gleam of its golden circle.

_Don't you know, son of Saul?_ His circlet remarked. _That you hold power over Israel? Don't you know Adonai chose you to rule, son of Saul? For you are his eldest and you are his successor. You are the arrow to his bow. You are the wing of Benjamin. You are the shield to Israel._

His golden circlet, shining, daunted him.

_Should I heed the voice that I wear upon my head, my mind?_

Memory after memory and promise after promise raced through his thoughts. But he had no time to think when the thinking fogged, and his body retracted. He yelped the last plea for the mercy God may settle upon him.

His eyes wandered as his father's screams of his name grew faint along with the sounds of war he hoped to be shunned. Oh, the memories that poured.

Senses numbed and the world flickered. It was getting dark. Of course, he needed rest, a rest to dig through his memories he could heap up. A peaceful sleep warmed his thoughts.

_A memory…_

Jonathan closed his eyes.

_Am I forgetting something?_

He let go of the pain clinging on him. A wave of relief washed upon him once he laid back in the shadows.

_What memory is left in me?_

He sighed.

"Jonathan." All silence and its serenity fled when a voice alerted him awake. His mind jumbled from the sudden disturbance. He flung his eyes open to find himself standing in a place he had never forgotten.

_The field._

His eyes darted at the grass swaying, and its golden strands coating the hill outspread to the slopes of Gibeah. His gaze brightened. In his royal garments wrapped by his mantle and covered in jewelry, the golden circlet oppressing his head once again reminded him of his position.

_The memory._

He faced in the sight before him and stiffened in the spot. His heart picked up the speed. His gaze met with the someone he almost set aside from his thoughts when doubt and grief stirred him in the days when confidence stood on edge. Sunshine and joy ablazed.

_Our promise._

"My good friend, I can't believe this is happening…" David shrank back, sinking his head in his shoulders. The auburn of his hair glowed a hint of red in the sun's embrace while its curls pressed his ruddy features, giving him the distinct look Jonathan knew him to be. His eyes, both dimmed with ambition and warm compassion, sparkled the beauty women lured themselves to. His muscles shifted in every movement he made, and the stout of his stance stood the presence of a hero he appeared himself to be. Indeed, he was one, but his garments tattered and shredded hid his greatness. Dark circles curved around his eyes with the belt of his tunic sagging and his sleeves almost gone. Half-naked, the young man's head drooped who lacked the confidence in his countenance. Panic and distraught embedded his face.

Jonathan's heart pricked. Distress had swallowed his friend, the friend he bounded in love with years ago. They made promises. They made covenants. They intertwined with each other as brothers. "Dear brother, keep yourself together." He jerked his hand onto his shoulders slumping. "Your heart will rest if you let it all go."

"But I can't." David's brows scrunched harder. "Your father wants me slain and now I must depart from you, forever…"

Jonathan gaped. He couldn't believe his words. "That's not true! Never!" Their souls, knitted, wouldn't separate if brothers for life. He clung harder on his shoulders. "Look at me, dear brother." His gaze pinned the eyes of his friend watered with tears. "Even till the day that I die, we are together as one and I shall give my all to you. I will never forget our covenants because of my love."

_Our love_

The word echoed like a song he couldn't resist. The destiny and promise had clung on his mind for numerous years ever since his father's rejection as king and since he first laid his eyes upon Israel's future, the man who will fulfill Samuel's prophecy.

_"Adonai has taken the kingdom from you and has given it to someone who is better than you."_

The seer had spoken against his father long ago. His father's cries and Samuel's booming reprimands never ceased to send shivers up his spine.

Jonathan closed his eyes for a moment, ashamed of his father's sins. But of course, if God intended the punishments to affect him also, then so be it. May God's will be done accordingly.

He stared ahead at the man trembling in his grasp. Jonathan stretched a smile to comfort him while laying a hand on his chin to lift. "Come." He motioned his head in the direction he desired to take. The promise had to be fulfilled. 

David flinched. "To where?"

"Your place in God's eyes." He let go of him and struck one foot forward. A step and another led him closer to the destination beyond human kind. The fields faded into a path, and the path dissipated into a street, and the street reached to the gate of a palace. From every step he neared the royal entry, the golden circlet he wore heavied his head and mocked him. But he ignored the scorn and pressed on without reluctance. It had to be done.

"Come inside." He beckoned him before closing the gate. When inside its golden interior carried by rows of columns towering upon cubit after cubit, he halted in front of a throne ready to be sat on. Jonathan glanced over his shoulder to find David, even wrecked and torn from head to toe, he strutted onward with chest puffed and eyes narrowed. His strides were of a leader that raged a fire in his veins, confident and ambitious. But in his heart cradled a humble spirit, gentle and understanding, that pours the emotions of the poet he was. The man may cover himself with tattered garments of a person with no worth, but whenever he looked in his way, he saw a king instead.

"Right there." Jonathan pointed at the throne. "This is where you shall sit forever."

David, at his side, paled and took a step back. His fists clenched as his teeth clattered. "No, I-I can't-" he turned his eyes toward the prince waiting. "You're meant to be the king." He stiffened.

"I was meant to fail." Jonathan shook his head. He took him by the arm and leaned for him to listen. "Brother, God has called you, and He wants you where you need to be." He led the staggering warrior to the throne and slid his hand over to the hem of his mantle. He tore it off. "Take my cloak." He handed him it and wrapped it around his shoulders for him. The blue linen hid most of his torn tunic and reached to his sandals dulled from the paths he took. Jonathan kept going when jerking out his belt he untied. "Take my belt." He coiled it around his waist. "Take my sword." Along with the belt he unsheathed his sword before placing it on top of the girdle. "And my bow too." He topped the pile with the last object on his belt, his bow. David held onto them and quaked in shock.

"Jonathan, I-"

"I'm not done." He continued when his locking gaze upon the gold gleaming back on his arm. His eyes narrowed. He thrust out the armlets, rings, the chains around his neck, and bracelets decorated on him and tossed them to the floor. He kicked them over to David, careless of their worth. "Take possession of my riches." He stepped back to scan his body of what to give. He twisted around, stretched his legs, and shifted his arms until his finger scraped across the surface of the metal he had worn for as long as he can remember since the day of his father's coronation. It tried to hide from his reach but failed, of course, he wouldn't allow it. He paused and escaped the breath he had been holding. It had to be done.

He rested his fingers upon the circle of gold, pressing against the slick curve with gentle touches. A cold broke loose from the circle and ran through the tips of his finger, but he couldn't be stopped.

_Oh, you simple-minded son of Saul._

He could hear the golden circlet mocking him.

_You don't honor your father's legacy. Oh, the foolishness of men like you!_

"Shall your mouth be closed by the wrath of God." He replied in irritation. He took it down and rubbed the edges knowing the royalty he had rubbed off. Nothing can stop from what his heart told him to do.

_Under Your will, oh Adonai_

His eyes shot forward as he held out the object in the presence of the one who must wear it. "Take my crown." He placed it on the head of the chosen one gleaming back a glow of discontent. Jonathan didn't balk. It rested perfectly on the curls pressed by the circlet marking him of what he should be. David raised his head to face him with his jaw hung. Speechless, he attempted to make out words, but Jonathan's touch on his shoulder hushed him. "Keep everything I've given you and pass them all onto your sons, your sons' sons, and so on." He spread a smile.

"I don't know what to say…" David stood erect, speechless.

"Speak of nothing but praises for everything Adonai has done for you." He kept his smile intact and lowered his hand. "Remember me and our promises. Remember my offspring and do not cut them off. Remember everything I've given you and our love. And remember…" He pinned his gaze harder. "Remember that I'll be second to you at the seat of your throne, always…" His hand found its way to rest on his heart.

David placed his hand on his and glanced up with tears welling his eyelids. "Thank you, you've been good to me." Not long had he flung himself on Jonathan to embrace him. "May Adonai be with you, Brother."

"Don't worry, I'll be meeting Him soon." He pulled himself out to reveal the smile he couldn't shrink. "But may Adonai be with you the most."

After their last moments of ceaseless joy and promises, David turned back to face the throne in front. He glimpsed at Jonathan once more with him nodding to go and be seated. The king sighed, walked up, and eased his way in the seat. He took a moment to settle in before staring back at his friend, teary-eyed and smiling. "Thank you, Jonathan." He smiled. "Thank you."

He dipped his head to acknowledge him and turned his back on the throne knowing the will had been fulfilled. He ambled forward, each step leaving everything behind, and into the glow of heaven's light.

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I already wrote an overly-dramatic death scene of a character in the same battle, but this was written for someone who requested me to write this if you didn't know ;) and I decided to share it ♡. Jonathan and David are my favorite characters in the Bible, so I had a great time writing this old-timey style I experimented.
> 
> Ignore any writing errors if you've spotted any already 😳💕 wrote this at 3 am from my burst of inspiration.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the story. I tried being accurate as possible although I rushed toward the end. But whatever, it's still something ♡♡♡
> 
> Hopefully I'll be able to post some more juicy Bible drama 👀💕


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